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During a Jan. 9 Prairie du Sac village board meeting, board members Eldor Fruehling and Craig Bender listen to a report of what occured at the village's recent Plan Commission meeting. Board President Cheryl Sherman reported representatives from Kwik Trip had brought forth a conceptual site plan for a project along the Highway 12 corridor.

Representatives from Kwik Trip shared a conceptual site plan for members of the village of Prairie du Sac Plan Commission Jan. 8 along the Highway 12 corridor at PF in the town of Prairie du Sac. If approved, Kwik Trip is requesting the land be annexed to the village.

Kwik Trip explores land for project along Highway 12 in town of Prairie du Sac

During a Jan. 9 Prairie du Sac village board meeting, board members Eldor Fruehling and Craig Bender listen to a report of what occured at the village's recent Plan Commission meeting. Board President Cheryl Sherman reported representatives from Kwik Trip had brought forth a conceptual site plan for a project along the Highway 12 corridor.

Representatives from Kwik Trip shared a conceptual site plan for members of the village of Prairie du Sac Plan Commission Jan. 8 along the Highway 12 corridor at PF in the town of Prairie du Sac. If approved, Kwik Trip is requesting the land be annexed to the village.

Sauk City has one, and now it may be the town of Prairie du Sac’s turn. Representatives from Kwik Trip are showing interest in a vacant lot on the corner of Highways PF and 12.

JSD Professional Services presented a conceptual site plan for the property at the Jan. 8 village of Prairie du Sac Plan Commission meeting with the hope the property would be annexed to the village. If the property were to be annexed, Kwik Trip would be able to connect with the village’s public water and sewer system, according to Prairie du Sac Village Board President Cheryl Sherman.

Sherman said representatives from Kwik Trip brought a conceptual site plan to the board to see if the project was something the village might be interested in.

“They have some plans drawn up but obviously nothing has been decided,” Sherman said. “It’s just that before they want to spend any more money on it, they wanted to find out if it was something we were totally opposed to, and go from there.”

Sherman said the project “seems to fit” within the parameters of the village’s comprehensive plan, which calls for a 350-foot setback.

“I’m not saying we’re going to approve it or not,” Sherman said. “It’s very early on. But right now we have no objections.”

Prairie du Sac Village Administrator Alan Wildman reiterated the village “was not to the point yet” of decision-making. “We aren’t even through the evaluation of the plan yet,” Wildman said.

“We still have some questions regarding the Highway 12 project and we haven’t been able to get much information from the DOT,” he said. “Our plan is to reach out to them and ask them more questions about what impact the project could have on the Highway 12 corridor. We want to make sure we don’t do anything to jeopardize that.”

Wildman said Prairie du Sac and Sauk City officials have spent a lot of time trying to devise a plan for Highway 12, and the preference of both communities is for the highway to stay in its current corridor.

If the DOT wanted to put in an interchange if Highway 12 should become a bypass in the future, the DOT could decide the area where Kwik Trip is interested in building could be too developed and choose to relocate Highway 12 to another corridor, like it did in Baraboo.

“The problem is the DOT hasn’t been involved in a lot of discussions about Highway 12 because of a memorandum entered into by federal agencies, the county and state,” Wildman said. “It talks about not doing any planning for Highway 12 through the Sauk Prairie area until 2020. The DOT has hid behind that memorandum, and without information from the DOT has made it difficult to do any long-term planning.”

Wildman said the area in which Kwik Trip has expressed interested is in the middle of where a future interchange could be considered.

“We want to make sure whatever development is out there isn’t going to jeopardize local planning for Highway 12 to stay in that area,” Wildman said.

Rachel Holloway, planner with JSD Professional Services Inc., said her firm has been hired by Kwik Trip to take the project through site planning through the approval process.

“It is just in the initial stages,” Holloway said.

The plan calls for a 10,000 square-foot convenience store, gas station and car wash.

Representatives from Kwik Trip did not return a call seeking comment.

Wildman said without talking to the DOT, there is little the village can do with development in that area.

“We are hoping to meet with the DOT soon,” Wildman said. “It is putting a strain on future development for the community because right now we are looking through a crystal ball. We don’t know what would work there, or would it cause problems?”

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